When We Two Parted, Lord Byron

• Context


  ● Believed to be about Lady Frances Webster - married to one of his friends

  ● Controversial love life - involved frequently in scandals

  ● Secrecy - victorian era, 1816, status and respect was very important
• ‘A knell in mine ear’


  auditory imagery, bell used to announce death - speaker experiencing absence of love
• ‘Silence and tears’


  cyclical structure - unable to move forward, trapped in distress
• ‘Sever'


  forceful verb, how hard and long to get rid of her
• ‘Pale grew thy cheek and cold, // colder thy kiss’


  tactile imagery acts as a metaphor comparing love to a dead body: lover has no warmth for him, he is dead to her
• ‘In silence I grieve’


  element of secrecy, auditory lang, death, internalised feelings
• ‘Long shall I rue thee’


  regret and bitterness, repetition: can’t ever forget her
• Regular ABABCDCD rhyme


  regularity of endless sadness, strict rhythm: unsaid things
• Irregular line lengths


  conversational tone adds authenticity to his negative emotions
• Themes and comparisons


  Pain, romantic loss, death/memory: NEUTRAL TONES: morbid references, lost love + aftermath (betrayal and loss vs decay of relationship), images of cold vs lifeless, quatrains and cyclical structures